Debauchery at Park Avenue Armory Gets Exhibit in Art Space Underwritten by Taxpayers
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
It’s going to be quite something to see what the taxpayers of New York are going to make of the spectacle opening today at the Park Avenue Armory. It’s a work called “WS” by the artist Paul McCarthy, whom no less a blue nose than The New York Times calls a “demented imagineer.”
He has erected within the taxpayer-funded space what the armory’s promotional material calls “a massive, fantastical forest of towering trees with grotesque video projections of iconic characters playing out their own fairy tale drama in a replica of his childhood home.”
“This daring social commentary,” the armory boasts, “lampoons the American dream and its cherished icons, bombarding the viewer with a sensory overload of scatological, sexual, violent, and debaucherous imagery that boldly forces the viewer to acknowledge the twisted underside to saccharine idols in popular culture.” It calls the result a “visceral, very challenging, immersive experience.”
It’s a glory that artists can push the edges of the envelope. My concern here is with the taxpayers who are forced to provide funding.
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